Meanwhile, two years ago Chotu started spending all of his time with a pack of dogs. He didn’t go to school so he didn’t have any friends. The dogs had become his friends.

The family hadn’t eaten solid foods or milk for days.

And one morning Shanichari spotted her son sitting on the floor drinking milk from the dog’s teat.

She said: "While he was playing with the dogs outside the house I saw him drinking the bitch's milk. I was so shocked. I ran over and pulled him away. But ever since whenever he is hungry he has always slipped back. I have let him because I know how hungry he is.

"The dog has always been friendly with him and never attacks him. He often rides on her back and then he jumps off and sucks on her teat along with her pups. The bitch licks him while he feeds just like she does with her own pups."

There were times when the dog sits outside his mud house and barks for him to come out to play.

But when local villagers found out about Chotu and his new friends they began to get angry. They were worried other children were at risk and that there would be a rabies outbreak.

"Villagers kept telling us he’d die of some disease if he carried on drinking it and it’d spread to the other children. But Chotu carried on," Shanichari added.

Eventually villagers reported Chotu to local officials and they stepped in. Chotu was admitted to school where he gets a free lunch and the authorities gave his family a food card, which allowed them to get food aid.

But still, the dog continues to visit Chotu and it has become a habit for him to drink her milk.

Chotu said: "I suck her milk three times a day and it tastes sweet like sugar.

"Many people in the village don't like my friendship with the dogs but I am happy, if she isn’t near my home I go looking for her outside the village. She’s always happy to see me and lets me have some milk."

The spectacle of Chotu feeding from the dog is reminiscent of the legend of Romulus and Remus, the twin brothers who were abandoned by their parents and placed in the river Tiber.

The basket reached the shore and the twins were discovered and suckled by a female wolf, who nursed the boys until they were taken in by a shepherd.